Page 85 of Love & Letter Charms
A ripple of unease coiled low within her, though it tangled helplessly with the shiver that chased through her at the brush of his thumbs.
“The real purpose was for me to find someone whose magic might stabilize my own. It’s a theory my mother discovered in several old texts, one your grandmother happened upon as well. The deep magical bonds formed in marriage can sometimes create a permanent stabilizing effect between different magics.” His eyes searched hers, bright with something she couldn’t quite name. “My mother dismissed your magic early on, believing that anything that tugged too strongly on one’s emotions would be volatile rather than stabilizing. But she was wrong.” He shook his head. “Your magic is entirely the opposite.”
Understanding began to dawn, terrible and wonderful all at once.
“It’s you,” he breathed again. “Since the day this ridiculous Crown Court began, I’ve been longing to choose you, terrified that I would be forced to select someone else for the sake of?—”
“Wait, you—” Her voice came out strangled. “You’ve been longing to choose me? Since the Crown Court began? You did not even know me! You told me you had no intention of choosing me!”
“I—” Something flickered across his features. An uncertainty and vulnerability she so rarely saw there. “There is something else I must?—”
“No, no, no,” she whispered.
He wanted to choose her.Choose her.
Princess. Crown Consort.Love.
In an instant, she was sitting in front of that pianoforte again, curled against him, her heart full to bursting—and the tidal wave she’d always feared finally crashed down upon her, and she was drowning, drowning, drowning in the terrifying immensity of it all.
“I cannot …” she mumbled, disentangling herself from his grasp and stumbling backwards.
“Wait, please just?—”
But she was already turning, already running, already tugging the door open and fleeing from a future that threatened to swallow her whole.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The enchantedcarriage slid to a halt outside The Charmed Leaf Tea House, and Aurelise pressed her palms against her temples, trying to quiet the chaos in her mind. Every emotion she’d spent years learning to contain was now crashing against her carefully constructed barriers like waves against a crumbling seawall. It was too much—this breathless, terrible, wonderful rush that swelled inside her until it ached, as though her heart could not possibly hold so much feeling without splintering under the weight of it.
She needed Kazrian. She needed someone who would understand this drowning sensation without judgment, who knew her well enough to recognize when she teetered on the edge of being utterly consumed.
Oh, Lady Aurelise, we’re here! We’re here!Thimble’s telepathic voice bubbled with nervous energy as she perched on Aurelise’s shoulder, her tiny paws tangling in loose strands of hair.Everything will be all right, I promise!
When Aurelise had burst into her chambers after escaping the music room, Thimble had taken one look at her face and immediately demanded to know what was wrong. Aurelise had tried—through tears and uneven breaths—to explain. It hadn’tbeen an easy tale to make sense of: something along the lines of “The prince is entirely too wonderful, and I may be hopelessly in love with him, which is precisely why I must flee both my feelings and this palace at once.”
To their credit, her companions had grasped the general sentiment with remarkable speed and leaped into action—after Thimble’s brief, squealing interlude of,You LOVE him! I KNEW it! I told you from the very first day how wonderful he is!
Then the tiny pink mouse had created a distraction with the palace guards while Spark had somehow procured use of one of the lesser enchanted carriages—Aurelise did not dare ask how—and the two of them had smuggled her out through the servants’ entrance.
They’d gone to Rowanwood House first, of course. It had been Thimble’s idea to scout ahead while Aurelise waited in the carriage, her tiny form and Spark’s diminutive size allowing them to slip through the house unnoticed. They’d returned with disappointing news—Kazrian wasn’t there, though Thimble had overheard one of the footmen mentioning he might be at the tea house.
Now, Aurelise climbed from the carriage, her voice still a little wobbly as she said, “Thank you for your help, dear ones. Will you … will you wait for me? I presume I shall need to return to Solstice Hall after I’ve spoken to my brother.”
Of course!Thimble squeaked.
As if we would abandon you, Spark huffed.
The carriage door swung itself shut, and Aurelise stared at the familiar ivy-covered walls of her grandmother’s establishment. She could hear the gentle hum of conversation from within. The front entrance was out of the question—walking through the main tea room in her current state would set every gossip bird in Bloomhaven squawking before sunset. So the back entrance it would be.
Aurelise gathered her skirts and hurried along the path around the side of the tea house. She rounded the corner toward the kitchen door, moving too quickly to properly watch where she was going, and nearly collided with someone emerging from within. Strong hands caught her shoulders, steadying her, and she looked up to find?—
“Kazrian!”
Her twin’s storm-gray eyes widened with surprise, then immediately narrowed with concern. There was something off about his expression—a tightness around his mouth, a brightness to his eyes that suggested he’d been wrestling with his own troubles.
They stared at each other for a suspended moment, and then, in perfect unison, both said, “What happened?”
Despite the emotional storm still raging in her chest, Aurelise nearly laughed at the absurdity of it.
